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Shut down ideas 2017

I did my homework searching for any active posts/threads and It looks the only one was closed. So let me start anew !

Somewhere I saw a photo of a drag strip where they used some sort of foam wedge(s) to stop cars instead of the more typical glue today or even the old parachute/pile of fabric.

We have been running some proxy drag racing now for 3 seasons. We shoot for vintage racing tires and allow current racing tires but really want to NOT use glue at the start or finish. It is just a mess to clean off the tires before another run.

We are running vintage cars/rails of the old padlock or 36D and some wild vintage modified motors.
So stopping these things (before they punch a hole in the wall) is important.

Does anyone know what Im referring to to the foam wedge design ? I might have even seen on Face Book but Im open to ideas!

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, Except for bears, Bears will kill you !

When dealing with vintage stuff most people will protect their investment at all cost. If you have a crowd that agrees on this form of stopping I would be amazed. A foam wedge will damage the bodies and mounting hardware. Any fast car will not like this foam wedge, so really what is so bad about glue? Glue is part of drag racing and its easier to clean off then trying to find another body or chassis that was damaged by wedges. Just my 2 cents and remember glue is your friend.....

Age old problem. Lets go as fast as possible, but how do you stop them without damage to something. Body mounting systems never react well to 'external forces' like solid walls or friction related devices.
Here is what I have tried over the years:

Make as long a shutdown as the room allows. If the room is less than 100 ft long, consider and 1/8th mile or 1000 ft strip. Every track 'record' is only a local thing anyway. I did have a full 55 ft 1/4 mile on a 100 ft strip and still had a few run the whole length.
I tried full hard wired brakes (both shutdown braids twisted together) for automatic operation. Additionally, I used magnetic braid and one standard 1/4" X 1" traction magnet on cars to draw them into the braid - otherwise some cars would bounce out of the slot.

The wedge box. I created a 'shutdown box' of divider walls at the last 4 - 8 ft of shutdown with a loose top that would 'pop-up' over each car. I used a very flexible egg crate foam on the sides and top to wedge on the cars to slow them down. I was not happy with it since many racers can barely mount their bodies let along prepare them for this type of aggressive restraint. I wonder what a directed blast of air might do like the sprayers in a car wash????

The old parachute at the end of the track we used on the Aurora Cycle and Hobby formica strip in the early 1960s....with three 12volt batteries in series for Top Fuel.....Cars needed gear guards to reduce the amount of chute caught in the gears.

My 'egg crate' foam was just throw away shipping foam. Shipping peanuts in a pillowcase could work as well. The chassis mass has more mass that tries to rip away from the body. One better body mounting system that helps is the pins in the front bumper rather than just from the sides of the car. Too flimsy of front pin tubes, the bumper pins get bent. The foam pillows act like a funnel to slow the car progressively. Obviously no one funnel will protect all cars equally. The looser top panel has only light mass to hold the cars down and why they pop-up when hit..

Has anyone ever tried powering the shutdown area with power separated from actual running length of the track. I would think having the shutdown under power with controllers hooked up or a system that would provide braking like a controller would work.

When a DC motor sits 'parked' with a reverse voltage applied, it will generate heat in the brushes and commutator and can build up enough to cause damage - I do no recommend it. In the 1960s, we did use a 3 volt reverse current in the controller braking circuit to help alnico magnet motors develop a bit of braking, but the car would try to back up if the car was parked.

Twisting the drag strip braid together to complete the 'black-red' brake circuit is common practice for normal automatic braking action which does harm only to drag cars with poor gear mesh. The shutdown area is not even wired to any other circuit anyway. Only the powered part of the track is hooked to a voltage.
Sometimes the braking action will cause the car to jump up and out of the glue on the track and why I elected to try the magnetic braid and magnets in the brake zone - it helped, but no magic solution.